By the end of the 1950s, Duquesne University had added multiple buildings to campus including Trinity Hall, Assumption Hall, and Rockwell Hall. However, the University had yet to obtain all the property from Bluff Street to Locust Street to form a cohesive campus.
Duquesne University was expanding at a time when American's cities were considered dirty, run down, and in need of rehabilitation. A Federal Program, Urban Renewal, was used during this time period to help redevelop America's cities.
Urban Renewal came out of the Housing Act of 1949. The program's goal was to demolish substandard housing and ideally replace it with new, better housing. While Urban Renewal was a country-wide movement that impacted many cities across the country, each city handled it differently.
In Pittsburgh, a survey determined that the Bluff Neighborhood was "blighted." This designation made the redevelopment of the neighborhood eligible for Urban Renewal funds. The blighted properties in the Bluff could be demolished and replaced with new construction. Working with Pittsburgh’s Urban Renewal Agency, an updated plan for Duquesne University was formulated in 1962 (Image 7). The plan can be viewed here in its entirety.
Image 7: This image is from the Bluff Street Redevelopment Plan, drafted by Pittsburgh's Department of City Planning. The dark blue buildings within the dashed line are proposed construction. The plan would increase Duquesne's property to include 72% of property in the developed area, over doubling campus's size.
To help illustrate the transformative effects of Urban Renewal on the Bluff neighborhood, please see the aerial images below (Images 8 and 9).
Image 8: This is an aerial photograph of campus from 1957. The blue arrow is pointing to Old Main. The yellow arrow is pointing to the library building constructed in 1939.
Image 9: This is an aerial photograph of campus from 1967. The blue arrow is pointing to Old Main. The Yellow Arrow is pointing to the library building constructed in 1939. The 1961 addition is also visible.
A lot changed in the neighborhood in just over a decade! The rowhouses and many of the other buildings that were present in the 1957 aerial were demolished and replaced with new construction by 1967. Today's campus was starting to take shape.
As campus's transformation continued, it was known that the 1961 addition to the library was not a permanent solution. Plans for another addition were discarded and Duquesne University started exploring other options. They considered various locations for new construction but eventually set their sights on obtaining a building right next to campus, the Geyer Garage, to become the University's next library building.
